Obsidian Entertainment
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Pillars of Eternity delayed, devs cite unexpected outpouring of cash
Despite earlier claims that Obsidian's Kickstarter-funded roleplaying epic, Pillars of Eternity, would be released in the Spring of this year, the developer is now backing away from that timeframe, saying the game's current scope simply won't allow for it. "When we started with a million-dollar budget and a relatively modest game with five classes, that was assuming if we get $1 million we can make this game and we'll probably get it done by April," project lead Josh Sawyer told Eurogamer. "We got almost four times as much money and that's a much bigger game, and that doesn't mean that immediately we just dump four times as many people on it and it also gets done in April. There's a lot more stuff to do." While Sawyer notes that "more than half" of the game's content has been completed (if not polished), he's hesitant to offer a new timeframe for the game's release. "[U]ntil we get really close to releasing the game we don't want a specific release window, because we're not a publisher, we don't have to! Virtually nothing good comes from us releasing a date before we're very confident in it." [Image: Obsidian Entertainment]
South Park: The Stick of Truth doesn't have Uplay integration, guy
Despite being an Ubisoft game now, South Park: The Stick of Truth doesn't require or even use Uplay in any way. The news comes from developer Obsidian, who took to its Twitter account to confirm the PC version is a Steam game, and a Steam game only. As AusGamers notes, The Stick of Truth was a THQ game in a past life, so perhaps that's why it's not integrated with Ubisoft's distribution and DRM service. Obisidian didn't offer an explanation in its answers to fans' questions. Whether or not the news leaves you happier than a poop at Christmas, the game is less than a month out. The Stick of Truth thwacks North America on March 4, Europe March 6. [Image: Ubisoft]
South Park pre-orders now live on Steam, bonus pack included
Ubisoft is now accepting digital pre-orders for the Steam version of Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth, offering up a series of exclusive bonus costumes as incentive for players to join the game's merry band of foul-mouthed fourth-graders on their quest. Players who pre-order The Stick of Truth via Steam will receive four outfits that boost in-game stats when equipped. Steam's "Ultimate Fellowship" pack includes the fire damage-increasing Necromancer Sorcerer Costume, weapon damage-boosting Ranger Elf Costume, the party-fortifying Holy Defender Costume, and the Rogue Assassin Costume, which increases gold earned after every battle. South Park: The Stick of Truth will launch for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms on March 4. [Image: Ubisoft]
Obsidian CEO eyes a quick return to crowdfunded games
Though the newly-titled Pillars of Eternity has yet to debut, Obsidian Entertainment is already working on ideas for its next crowdfunded roleplaying epic. "What I'm trying to figure out is, how could we make something that is more like a Skyrim for PC – forget console for now – with the engine we made in Unity for Eternity?" pondered Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart. "Where we are with our conversation, quest, data editors, and all of that. If we were careful about scope and let Chris Avellone go wild with creating a new world, more of an open world, what could we do?" Good question, but given Avellone's earlier epic roleplaying games, giving him free rein could very easily result in George R.R. Martin-style roleplaying game that's 500 hours long and involves 200 different characters. Even with modern technology that's not feasible. Solution? Episodic games. "Would it make sense for it to be episodic? Because going out there and saying, 'We're gonna make 100 hours of gameplay,' everyone goes, 'Oh my god, how could it not cost millions?" states Urquhart. "But could we create ten hours and have people pay ten bucks? And generally when we say ten hours, it's usually 15. But if we go with five episodes, then people get between 50 and 75 hours." Obsidian's plans are actually further along than anyone suspected, and as Rock Paper Shotgun grilled Urquhart, he let slip that the company is working toward creating a game based on a licensed property. "There's something we're talking about that I think would be really cool, but it's not an original property," said Urquhart. "It's a licensed property ... It's something we can still do a ton of creative stuff with, though. And then the other thing is an original property. Also, there's a third thing that somebody approached us with, but I really don't think that's going to work out." It appears that the massive outpouring of crowdsourced cash and support has emboldened Urquhart and his colleagues at Obsidian. There's no telling which of these project they'll aim for once Pillars of Eternity is complete, but we can always cross our fingers for a new Planescape: Torment, huh?
Project Eternity now Pillars of Eternity, Obsidian debuts trailer to celebrate
As a name, "Project Eternity" always felt like a high-fantasy placeholder - which it apparently was, as Obsidian's crowdfunded roleplaying epic will henceforth be known as "Pillars of Eternity." While Obsidian offers no explanation for the new name, nor how these pillars grew to such a ripe old age, it has issued the above trailer. It describes the clip as a teaser, and while technically that might be true, there's far more footage of actual in-game content here than we normally see. Combat, spellcasting, biologically improbable huge spiders; it's all here, and the game's aesthetics look like a modern take on the Western roleplaying games of the late 1990s, typified by such classics as Baldur's Gate 2. Obviously that's by design as Obsidian's website is currently running a poll asking fans which late-90s RPG they'd most like Pillars of Eternity to resemble. Additionally, if you happen to have put down some cash to fund Pillars of Eternity, you can now pay a visit to the game's backer's portal. This allows you to make further donations to the project, earmark your donations for specific purposes and select which backers' rewards you'd like to receive in exchange for your optimistic contribution.
South Park: The Stick of Truth delayed to March 2014
South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed to March 4, 2014, Ubisoft announced today. The game will now launch on March 6, 2014 in Europe. Ubisoft acquired the game when it purchased THQ Montreal in January, later announcing that the game would arrive this holiday season. "Within three weeks after acquiring the game, we sadly realized we had to turn this thing upside down if we hoped to deliver the experience everybody wanted," Ubisoft North America's president Laurent Detoc said in the announcement blog. "It's been such a major overhaul to get to the point where we are that we couldn't let it go, even if that meant missing December." Ubisoft also unveiled a new gameplay trailer for the game, which clocks in at over seven minutes long.
Knights of the Old Republic 3 was in pre-production at Obsidian
Another installment in the ever-popular Knights of the Old Republic series was in pre-production at Obsidian, creative director Chris Avellone told Eurogamer. Avellone said KOTOR 3 would have featured the character Revan more than KOTOR 2, from which the character was largely absent. "I always liked the idea that Revan, as smart and powerful as your player-character was, was actually even more of a brilliant strategist than became apparent in the first game," Avellone said of Revan's role in the first game. "The entire second game is littered with clues as to 'why didn't Revan destroy the infrastructure here? What was he trying to make sure was still intact? What did he/she see that no one else saw?'" The third game would have players tracking down Revan as a character deemed "The Exile." Allevone said, "it felt like we were pitching and pitching [to LucasArts] and it just wasn't going anywhere, and at some point people just drew a line and said 'it's just not going to happen,' which made us kind of sad, but, OK, if that's the business, that's the business." Obsidian's pitch to Disney in February 2013 for a new Star Wars game was different than KOTOR 3, according to Eurogamer. Obviously, this was before EA obtained the exclusive rights to develop and publish Star Wars games in May 2013.
South Park creators were unaware of THQ sale until it was in the news
Speaking at San Diego Comic Con this week, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed that they had no knowledge of former South Park: The Stick of Truth's publisher THQ's bankruptcy and sale until the news broke publicly. "We really just read about it in the news," Parker said, "that they were going bankrupt, that someone else bought [the rights to] the game." Facing potential cancellation, the pair joked, "Oh, good, it's over!" The duo's enthusiasm for the project picked up once Ubisoft acquired publishing rights for The Stick of Truth. "Once we heard who had bought it, we got really excited," Parker said. "We flew up to [Ubisoft] and all that momentum picked up and we got really excited again." South Park: The Stick of Truth will launch for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC platforms on November 19.
Report: Obsidian considered 'sci-fi Skyrim' RPG Backspace
Obsidian Entertainment once had a sci-fi game in development, built using the Skyrim engine and that game's "Radiant AI" system. Dubbed Backspace, the project was in development at Obsidian in early 2011, Kotaku sources claim. Obsidian boss Feargus Urquhart confirmed the studio could possibly come back to the idea in the future. The Backspace design document describes "simple time travel" and combat similar to Skyrim, "but slightly faster since there is no concept of blocking." It calls for a game that is a mixture between Mass Effect, Borderlands and System Shock 2. Players would navigate between various worlds, linked together by one massive space station. "Backspace was a project concept that we neither cancelled nor greenlit," Urquhart told Kotaku. "We had some great people work on the idea for Backspace for a bit of time and then moved them off to other projects as opportunities came up. We've been around for ten years now and have had a bunch of great ideas that we still have sitting around that we may be able to return to in the future." Obsidian Entertainment has a lot of irons in the fire at the moment, including South Park: The Stick of Truth for publisher Ubisoft and Project Eternity, a Kickstarter campaign that yielded $3.9 million for the development studio to create a PC-only isometric dungeon crawler similar to Baldur's Gate.
South Park: The Stick of Truth coming this holiday season
During Ubisoft's E3 keynote, it was revealed that South Park: The Stick of Truth's launch has been narrowed down to Holiday 2013. The turn-based RPG, which Ubisoft recently acquired from defunct publisher THQ, is currently in development at Obsidian Entertainment.
Saving the land one blast at a time in South Park: The Stick of Truth
South Park: The Stick of Truth is a fantastical universe built on a foundation of realism: "In terms of a fourth-grade boy, magic really is farting," producer Nathan Davis proclaims. In the Obsidian-developed, now Ubisoft published role-playing game, that foundation is the essence of your character's power. Choosing to align with either Cartman and his human faction or with Stan, Kyle and the elves they command, your customizable character will offer his mysterious command of flatulence to defeat his enemies and recover the fabled 'Stick of Truth.' Known throughout the land as "the new kid" (and, yes, even as the "Dragonborn"), your character wields special abilities based on the bodily function – such as "cup-a-spell," cupping foul smelling attacks and throwing them toward enemies and the environment for massive explosive damage. It's the most South Park game you'll ever play and, with its absolute perfect mimicry of the show's art style, it's the most loyal adaptation the series has seen in video games.%Gallery-190321%
Obsidian and Allods team up to create Skyforge
If you've ever been curious about what would happen if you mixed the Allods Online team with Obsidian Entertainment, wonder no more! The two forces announced their partnership at the Russian Game Developers Convention where they unveiled their upcoming MMORPG, Skyforge. The game is planned to release for the PC in 2014. More details are available from the devs themselves in the video after the break, if you speak Russian. For those who don't, you can catch a few snippits of game video between the interviews and a stretch coming just before the seven minute mark.
Project Eternity unveils first video, dynamic environment in action
Obsidian upgraded that first Project Eternity screen from half a year ago into some fully-fledged footage this week. The video, as preambled by project lead Josh Sawyer, doesn't showcase any gameplay, but focuses on some of the RPG's dynamic environmental effects.As you can see - skip to 1:48 for the footage itself - these effects range from the subtle movement of leaves blowing in the wind to water levels rising and falling. The video briefly throws in some character animations before demonstrating a day-to-night transition."In a 2D game, this required our programmers and artists to come up with some creative solutions," reads Obsidian's description. "What they came up with surprised us initially and it continues to amaze us. While we are still working on refining some of the dynamic elements, we're very happy with the progress we've been able to make and hope you feel the same way."Project Eternity raised just under $4 million in Kickstarter backing last October, making it at the time the most funded game on the platform - inXile's Torment: Tides of Numenera, which has Obsidian's Chris Avellone on its design team, recently surpassed it.
What could have been in Obsidian's Aliens RPG
In 2009, Sega had three games in the Aliens universe under its control: Gearbox's Aliens: Colonial Marines, Rebellion's Aliens vs. Predator and an Aliens RPG subtitled Crucible from Obsidian. Sega decided to cancel one of these projects – we assume through a sophisticated "close your eyes, spin around and point" method – and Obsidian's RPG got the boot.Back then Sega didn't offer a taste of what the game would look like, but now we have a video of some creepy-crawly creatures from Obsidian's Aliens RPG, courtesy of character animator Danny Garnett.In 2010, Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart said the Aliens RPG was basically a finished game when Sega pulled the plug. "That's how close we were," he said. "It looked and felt like it was ready to ship." We wish we could say the same about Colonial Marines.
Obsidian has a new Star Wars game pitch for Disney
Obsidian Entertainment, developer of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2, has an idea for a new Star Wars game, and is eager to pitch it to new IP holder Disney."We pitched a between-Episode III and Episode IV game [to previous Star Wars owner LucasArts]," Obsidian CEO Feargus Urquhart told RPS. "Because we think that timeframe is super interesting. It's the fall of the Republic, the extermination of the Jedi, it's Obi-Wan going off and making sure Luke is OK. You have the Sith, but you have the extermination of all Force users except for very, very few. So it was an interesting time to set a game, and you know, Chris Avellone came up with a really cool story."Obsidian hasn't brought its pitch to Disney yet, but it plans to present this same concept – which LucasArts was enthusiastic about before it was sold to the company."We haven't [talked with Disney yet]," Urquhart said. "We're kind of waiting for the smoke to clear. But that's one of my next big things to do."
Alpha Protocol is the new Deus Ex
This is a weekly column from freelancer Rowan Kaiser, which focuses on "Western" role-playing games: their stories, their histories, their mechanics, their insanity, and their inanity. Alpha Protocol is the new Deus Ex. This may seem like a strong statement, given the original Deus Ex's regard as an all-time great, but that wasn't always the case. Time has been very kind to it, and Alpha Protocol seems perfectly positioned to undergo a similar process. Both games' weaknesses are transparent, and both games' strengths point toward the future of video games. When Deus Ex was released a little over a decade ago, I remember reading a review in Computer Gaming World, which gave it 3.5 stars out of 5. CGW justified that score by pointing out glaring flaws with Deus Ex, primarily its ugly graphics and pathetic artificial intelligence. I remember that review specifically because, a month or two later, they printed a letter to the editor that said roughly "I was going to get angry because I obsessed about the game for two weeks, but as I started writing I realized your criticisms were entirely valid." This, to me, strikes at the very core of what makes a cult classic: a general, all-encompassing analysis may find obvious flaws that prevent full-throated praise, but for those who can forgive those flaws, the strengths aren't done better anywhere else.%Gallery-19776%
South Park: The Stick of Truth trailer features crossdressing and wizard crap
If the actual game proves as funny as its trailers, then Obsidian's South Park: The Stick of Truth will be doing very well. Our favorite parts from this video are Cartman on Kenny's enthusiasm for the Princess role, and a Mickey-taking cameo from Mr. Hankey.
Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter concludes at $3.9 million
That's it! Obsidian's Project Eternity Kickstarter has finished with $3,986,194 pledged. This means Project Eternity, an old-school fantasy RPG project from the longtime developer, has earned more contributions than the $3.3 million by Double Fine Adventure, the Kickstarter project that kicked off this whole "year of the game.""It's all smiles and gratitude over here at Obsidian," CEO Feargus Urquhart told us. "It is incredible what crowdfunding can make possible."Other recent mega success stories in Kickstarter funding include Uber Entertainment's $2.2 million for Planetary Annihilation and the $8.5 million by Ouya.
Obsidian's Avellone on South Park and the continued appeal of external franchises
Obsidian Entertainment has proven through its Project Eternity Kickstarter that it can afford to make original IPs. However, just because the company doesn't necessarily have to work in existing franchises doesn't mean the team will stop doing so."Working with franchises can be challenging, but at the same time I really did enjoy working on Star Wars, for example, and I have done a lot of Dungeons & Dragons games, but I still enjoy it very much," Obsidian creative director Chris Avellone told me. "And there's plenty of franchises out there that we would love to work with still."Developing games in pre-existing universes can be rewarding for Obsidian, Avellone suggested. South Park: The Stick of Truth, which is as far from Obsidian's comfort zone as anything would be, illustrates the benefits. "The fact that you're implementing game system mechanics that cater to the South Park franchise, in the sense of rude and obnoxious different weapon types," Avellone explained, "we rarely get a chance to flex our design skills in those directions, and it's a lot of fun to do. We're actually learning a lot while we're doing it. That's another advantage of working on someone else's franchise. You sort of get inside their head for a sense of how they think, and how that stuff can be converted into game mechanics." Obsidian was dropped into South Park with a surprisingly clear vision of what to do, as a concept had already been proposed. "We didn't actually know what they were thinking about in terms of RPGs, so we went up there for one day, they ran us this animatic sequence of how they imagined the opening of the game playing," and Obsidian "got it" immediately. "It was hilarious, and we got it, we see what you're trying to make here. It's going to feel like the show, it's going to look like the show. Here's how you interpret the controller mechanisms." What wasn't as clear from the outset was whether the Stick of Truth offer was true. "I would never have thought we'd get a chance to do an RPG like that, and like holy crap," Avellone said. "When we first heard about it, I seriously thought some other game company was punking us. 'Ha ha ha, we're from South Park and we want to do an RPG!... ha ha, fake.'"
How to write Fallout: New Vegas DLC
In a narrative-focused presentation at GDC Online, Obsidian Entertainment creative director Chris Avellone outlined the considerations that went into the development of the four Fallout: New Vegas DLC packs. For one thing, "We had the rare opportunity to know we were actually going to do four of these," unlike most game projects where sequels are not guaranteed, he said.However, they couldn't carry storylines over. "Each one was a very self-contained short experience" by design; each storyline and setting had to exist in isolation from one another, because the team could not assume that any player would own all four packs. That "short experience" adds up to just 10,000 lines of dialogue across all four, Avellone said – a hard maximum. As a result, Avellone and Obsidian had to pad out the dialogue with "trickery" including mute characters who spoke in hand gestures. "We were only able to get away with that for so long," he added.
